The usual concept of power which enlightened men have held through the centuries is undergoing an enforced revision. Men have always looked for power in the prodigious, but many are learning today that it is not found there. Power resides rather in the small and insignificant.
The infinitesimal microbe has spread greater devastation than all man’s arms in modern warfare. By simple hydraulic pressure, the power of droplets of water, men are lifting skyscrapers and moving mountains. The unmeasured might of the tiny atom has baffled man’s imagination, and has wrought more destruction than a mountain of explosives.
This is really no new concept of greatness. It was set forth nearly twenty centuries ago. Paul, whom men regarded not as among the great of his age, but as of “the off-scouring of the earth,” wrote: “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are” (1 Cor. 1:27-28).
NOT MANY MIGHTY
In the annals of human history, as recorded in Scripture, it has been demonstrated consistently that men of might, nobility, and human wisdom have played a lesser part on the stage of time. The primary actors have been those whom men have naturally discounted. God, who overrules in the affairs of men, informs us that this is His plan. “Ye see…that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (l Cor.. 1:26).
In God’s dealings with men through the ages, the Almighty constantly used those of humble mien to walk in the secret place of His power and overthrow the mighty of the earth. In the pages of Holy Writ we see this principle amply exemplified.
Noah’s perseverance triumphed over the mockery of the worldly wise of his day. He outrode the storm that brought their destruction.
Joseph, a younger son in a large family, whose early footsteps were dogged by misfortune, envy, and hatred, rose in unassuming grace to sit on the throne of Egypt.
David, the sheepherder, with a sling and stone overcame the swashbuckling Goliath, and went on to outwit the cruel and jealous Saul, who was head and shoulders above him.
Moses, the meekest man in all the earth, slow of speech and unobtrusive, became the greatest leader of men of all time. He conducted a great host, in spite of rebellion and strife, across a desert for forty years.
Daniel, a young man of unassuming demeanor, a captive in a foreign land, quietly defied the tyrannous Gentile monarch Nebuchadnezzar, and was rewarded by being set at the king’s right hand of honor.
Paul, the apostle in the New Testament, who stood before his brethren in Corinth “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,” evangelized Europe and has dominated the world as an exponent of Christian truth from that day onward.
It does seem evident from these personalities, who shone like stars in the firmament of the affairs of men, that the balance of power seems to be on the side of humility and kindness, quietness and grace, rather than the proud bearing or the might of arms.
THE TIDE OF EMPIRE
As we scan world history, we realize that the tide of time has flowed onward like a turbulent stream. Conflict has raged more or less continuously. One emperor after another has lusted for world dominion.
Babylon had its brief years of universal dominion. Nebuchadnezzar’s unbridled tyranny throughout the Gentile world spread terror to its remotest bounds. Babylon seemed destined to last forever, but ungodly lust for power and licentious living brought about its overthrow.
Media-Persia took over the reins of world dominion, but this was a divided empire from the start, and it soon vanished into oblivion.
Then the Grecian Empire rose under Alexander the Great, who stalked the earth as invincible. He conquered the known world, and died at thirty-three. Out of his own ranks arose antagonisms that divided his empire. It became vulnerable, and Rome took over.
The might of Rome seemed omnipotent, and the Caesars established what they called “the Eternal City of Rome,” the center of an empire that would hold undisputed sway in the earth, and have no end.
Just before the Lord Jesus was born, it seemed as if Rome held the unquestioned sovereignty of the world. Then in the little town of Bethlehem Judah a baby was born. It was such an event as would not at all merit first-page mention.
A virgin called Mary and her espoused husband Joseph sought a lodging place for themselves, but were elbowed out into the street by the busy throng of more important guests. There was no room for them in Bethlehem’s wayside inn, although they found haven in a stable, where the Child Jesus was born, and laid in a manger. Never was there an expression so eloquent of abject weakness and inconsequence as that little Baby lying in a manger in the forgotten town of Bethlehem. Yet it was Omnipotence in a manger.
Proud Rome would have disdained to imagine that any such event would have the slightest significance in the tide of empire in the world. Never had its proud universal sway seemed so undisputed, for unnumbered peoples had been crushed under the heel of Rome and lay prostrate at its feet. No standing army stood outside the citadel of their power, yet in that little manger in Bethlehem there was enshrined a power mightier than all the hosts of men of war from time immemorial. It was the might of lowliness, meekness, and grace.
The Child came to Manhood; it was soon evident He was Jesus the Lord. He had come to save His people from their sins–to set them free, not merely from Rome’s tyranny, but from Satan’s bondage. From the glory of the birth of the Christ-Child there has radiated throughout the world a new kind of power that Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, or the Caesars could never have understood–the power of meekness and gentleness.
In our day we have witnessed the greatest onslaught of armed might in the world’s history, culminating in victory according to man’s concept, yet the victors today are looking around for a power greater than armies to settle their unsolved international problems. They have found that the great victories have been actually great defeats.
Ministers of the gospel around the world are doing more to solve the problems of mankind and bring order out of chaos than all the armor of the seas, land, and air.
A NEW POWER AND A NEW KINGDOM
In Bethlehem’s manger we see omnipotence enshrined in weakness. There the eternal and limitless might of Jehovah made its unobtrusive entrance on the stage of time within the mysterious limitations of a tiny Baby–God incarnate. The power which was embodied in the Child Jesus at Bethlehem is a new kind of power which men do not understand. It was the same kind of power that was demonstrated in those men of God whose names we have mentioned. They were but shadows of the One who came at Bethlehem. They portrayed the power of the life which found in Him its Fountainhead–the power of divine love: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).
This one golden verse has overcome more tyrants, quenched more cruelty, captivated more proud hearts than all the armed might of men. How? By the “meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1). Many a stout heart which would not yield to tyranny has bowed in adoration before the One who was born in Bethlehem, died at Calvary, and now sits on the right hand of power.
HIS KINGDOM
The once Babe of Bethlehem has Himself established a kingdom. His kingdom is far more powerful than was Rome at its zenith. It is “the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.” No marching armies carrying weapons of murderous destruction are maintained in this kingdom. No cannon roar is heard on the battlements of its citadel. Its soldiers go forth armed with the simple story of redeeming love. The gospel of peace is heralded in melodious strain from the towers of its city of refuge.
Paul, the religious bigot whose proud heart was captivated by the tender mercy of his loving Lord, described the weapons used by this kingdom: “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:2-5).
Should this article come into the hands of any whose hearts have not yet been won by the saving grace of the Lord Jesus, may we invite you to come under the power of His love? “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Rom. 1:16).